Poorly chicken

[aqualiv]

Hi everyone

I'm thinking of getting some ex battery hens again but we have a lot of cats around where we live now and wanted to check that they wouldn't be a problem- i.e attack the chickens?

[mullethunter]

In general cats don't cause chickens a problem. I have bantams and 2 cats. They generally ignore each other, or if the cats get too close the chickens just move away, or if there is a sudden meeting the chickens alarm shout usually scares the cats to death and they run off. I have seen the cats play chase the chickens and obviously even a play swipe could have disastrous consequences, but generally as soon as the chicken squawks the cat runs away. The funniest thing I've seen with ours was when one of my pekins was in the Eglu, one of the cats went in just having a nose about, the Pekin came shooting out, wings out, fluffed up to twice her normal size, shrieking her head off and I've never seen the cat move so fast He hasn't been in there since!!

 

Sorry - rambling! I'd keep the chickens shut away from the cats at first so they can all figure each other out, but although it does depend on the cats (I guess a feisty Tom might have a serious go) they'll normally give chickens a fairly wide berth.

[Sil-El]

I've got 2 cats and we don't have a problem with the hens at all.

 

Athena ignores the chickens and so they ignore her, Apollo is scared of them, to the point that he won't walk past them, I have to carry him until he is out of their way. Every so often he will get brave and try and have a sniff of them, but his nerve gives out very quickly because they just flap their wings at him.

 

Both of mine are small cats and they are only in the garden under supervision, but we've had other cats stroll into the garden out of curiosity, and we did have one that used to sit in the tree above the hen house but he would never make any effort to get any closer.

 

I think as long as you are careful and keep an eye on proceedings until your ladies are confident in their new surroundings, you should be fine.

[The Dogmother]

I would only worry for the cats - all the felines in my neighbourhood, even my attack cats, are petrified of my flock!

[redsunset]

I have 6 and a half cats.....ok 7. Never bothered the chickens, prob more wary as odd one will chase them! No

[Sarelis]

I have 3 cats, my small female cat Mini does not bother with the chooks at all but the big stripy boys have both had a pop at them. I'm hoping that it's just the novelty factor and they will learn to leave them alone. The boys regularly hunt as a pair which makes it slightly more worrying. Rodney at least eventually got bored of stalking the hens today and went off to catch mice...

[Valkyrie]

A neighbour's cat attacked our cuckoo maran - I didn't find that out until I saw the feathers afterwards (she was unharmed - well floofed all over so the cat had a mouthful of them and nothing else) but I heard the girls yelling and when I rushed out I saw a ginger chicken rolling over with a furry black cat. Cat ran off. We do pretty much the same as Squirt is a cranky old bird - at that time she was a cranky young bird! She was protecting her flock, bless her! The cat never went near them again - although I saw her lying in the veggie patch in the sun - which was fenced off to the chooks! Funny thing was she went for the big bird - totally ignored the pekins and the silkie! I imagined she was thinking a bigger dinner was the better option.

[merlina]

My cat Mickey is terrified of the hens. Especially when they're at the back door wanting treats - he does this pathetic 'please make the scary thing go away' plaintive look

Some of the big old farm cats around have been seen eyeing up the hens (they mostly FR round the garden) but there has never been an attack

[Millie-Annie]

We have several cats round here and they have all been terrified of the chickens. One night I put the girls in their run, and as I shut the outside door next doors cat came out the coop where he had been sleeping. The girls stood at the foot of the ladder, looking up at him waiting to go to bed and he stood in the doorway looking at me. I opened the door and called him and he looked down at the four girls, all looking up, looked back at me with a look that said "me, go down there, with them? You've gotta be joking" The girls wouldnt come back out as they wanted to go to bed, so I had to go in and carry him out. What a wuss so I honestly wouldnt worry about cats and chickens

[delphzzzz]

My lot usually stare down the local cats until said cats go away! One of the ex-batts chases them off too, quite assertively.

[Blackrocksrock]

Poor solitary chicken is being chased by a neighbour up the roads cat = it chased her all round the garden today screaming she was until we went and chased it away - I am about to get one of those blaster water pistols to get it with - It wont hurt it but may just scare it away. Never ever had problems before and have my own cats,

[Cat tails]

My neighbours cat did go after my chickens a number of times when I just got them. Gave him a good "Ooops, word censored!" one time (got very lucky with timing) and he now ignores them mostly. But they don't free range anymore, so that makes it less interesting too.

 

My dad got his neighbours a water pistol and a bunch of tennis balls. The neighbour came complaining that his cat was stalking their chickens. A few well aimed tennis balls and a good soak and cat has yet to show herself in their garden since.

[Sisgb]

A local cat leapt on top of one of my girls while they were free ranging in the garden. It completely covered her, and she just played dead. Fortunately I was close by and chased the cat away, but feared the worst for the cook, who just lay there, unmoving. When I went to gently touch her, she leapt up and ran off, and has seemed none the worse for her ordeal. I'm much more careful when they out and about now.